


Sugar Sugar Candy House

by AngieOwlie



Series: Banana Fish - Fairy Tale Retellings [2]
Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga), Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale Retellings, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hansel and Gretel Elements, M/M, Siblings, Spells & Enchantments
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-04-07 01:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19075126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngieOwlie/pseuds/AngieOwlie
Summary: A Hansel & Gretel AU involving sugar and spice, and a few things that aren't so nice...When teenage Nadia and her younger brother Sing find themselves lost in the woods, they never expected to stumble upon a house made entirely out of sweets. And while the candymaker who invites them inside seems warm and friendly, the smile behind his facade conceals a painful loneliness...and a terrible secret.





	1. Chapter 1

There once lived a pair of siblings named Sing and Nadia.  
  
Like all Chinese family, they lived together with their mother and father, aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents. One might think that life was hectic and cramped with so many people under one roof, but it just so happened that their three-floor apartment was, in fact, built on top of a restaurant.  
  
The restaurant had been passed from generation to generation, and anyone who tasted the food agreed that it was the most delicious Chinese cuisine in all of the land. And so, growing up Sing and Nadia were surrounded, not only by an endless chatter of jokes and wisdom and the usual “Have you eaten yet?”, but also delicious flavours of sugar and spice and sauces and aromas.  
  
Soon after Nadia could start walking, she began taking an interest in the way food could be combined, as shown when curiosity led her into squeezing an entire bottle of Sriracha into an unsuspecting customer’s bowl of beef noodles. As she grew older, she began helping around the kitchen and, naturally, the more she learned from the chefs, the more she fell in love with cooking. After Sing was born, her determined six year old self started to take cooking seriously, and she could often be found experimenting with new recipes.  
  
Which was how, eight years later, the two of them wound up getting lost in the woods when they happened to stumble upon that house.  
  
On the day it happened, Sing was finishing up a breakfast of egg tarts when Nadia marched into the kitchen, announcing that she needed him to accompany her on a quest to gather a most unique ingredient for her new dumpling recipe. According to Nadia, they were looking for purple mushrooms speckled with black dots.  
  
“Sounds poisonous,” Sing had remarked through a mouthful of tart. “Are you sure it’s safe? What if all the customers ate it and then died?” He gasped. “What if _Charlie_ ate it?”  
  
“What about him?”  
  
“Ha! Only that he's the most popular boy at school, and _you’ve_ got the biggest, fattest crush on him!” Sing laughed as he reached for another tart—  
  
_SMACK!_  
  
And that was how the tart ended up all over his face instead of in his mouth.  
  


*     *     *     *     *

  
Half an hour later, (having cleaned up the mess with a grumble), Sing followed Nadia into the woods that stretched behind their town, and they began searching for her mushrooms.  
  
But the search was no quick task.  
  
By the time the midday sun was burning at its brightest, Sing was already bored. His legs also felt sore, so he plopped down on a moss-covered log. Rolling her eyes, Nadia continued looking but she made sure Sing stayed within eyeshot.  
  
With nothing to distract him, Sing had just began pulling at a thread on his shirt when a movement caught his eye. He looked up. There was a rustling of leaves...and out of the bushes jumped a rabbit.  
  
Except for his little pink nose, everything about the rabbit was dark as night—from his soft glossy fur, to his gleaming wide eyes, the rabbit blended almost perfectly into the shadow of the trees. His little mouth held a single flower—a daisy, to be exact. And the way the flower dangled...it didn’t look as if he was going to eat it. Sing wondered if perhaps the rabbit was bringing it back to its burrow. His eyes lit up. _Perhaps there were more rabbits!_  
  
They stayed that way for a moment, Sing looking at the rabbit, the rabbit looking at Sing. And then, in the second of a heartbeat, the rabbit turned on its tail and dashed farther into the woods.  
  
Without thinking, Sing leaped up and gave chase, eyes never once leaving the rabbit. Behind him, a confused Nadia shouted, “Sing? Where are you going? Come back!!” Before long, he heard her footfalls thudding after him.  
  
The rabbit, knowing it was being followed, bounded this way and that, challenging Sing to keep up. And though he willed his tired legs to move faster, he soon found himself slowing down.  
  
Just as he was about to give up, the rabbit leaped with all his might and disappeared into a thicket of grass.  
  
Sing stopped in his tracks; he steadied himself with one hand on a hollowed tree as he tried to catch his breath. When his breathing returned to normal, he slowly peered over the grass, hoping to catch a glimpse of dark fur.  
  
There was none.  
  
Brows furrowing, he was about to get on his knees and crawl through the grass when—  
  
“ _What_ were you thinking?”  
  
He spun around.  
  
Nadia skidded to a halt in front of him. “Just how old _are_ you, chasing after a rabbit like that?” she exclaimed.  
  
Seeing the fire in her eyes, Sing pouted and did his best to look innocent. “He was really cute...! I just…wanted to see if there were other ones, that’s all.”  
  
Nadia put her hands on her hips. “We were _supposed_ to be looking for mushrooms. And now look where we are – in the middle of nowhere!” She waved a hand at the trees surrounding them, as if it was somehow their fault for luring Sing into the woods.  
  
Sensing the danger in her voice, Sing hung his head and looked down. “I’m sorry, Nadia- _jiejie_...” he said quietly. He knew how much the new recipe meant to Nadia, and now he felt ashamed for having abandoned their mission.  
  
A hand patted his head.  
  
He looked up. The annoyance in her eyes had dimmed and was replaced by a sort of softness. “Come on,” she sighed, “let’s just try and find our way back.” Her hand reached for his.  
  
Nodding, he took her hand as relief washed over him, and together, they walked back in the direction they’d come from.  
  
Had the two of them turned around, they would’ve seen the black rabbit peeking out from behind a tree, the flower still in its mouth, and, after making sure the two humans were indeed no longer chasing him, only then did he jump into the hole in the tree, landing gently beside the sleeping lynx that had been waiting for his return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this first chapter~ :D I had hoped to start serializing this sooner but recently I started reading books again and sorta got a little carried away with my nose buried in stories all day long, hahaha... (´∀｀；
> 
> Anyway! Chapter 2 will be up within a week, and as always, thank you for reading! (・ω・)ノ


	2. Chapter 2

Perhaps it was the way the sun grew dimmer and dimmer that the shadows grew larger and larger, making it hard to differentiate between the trees they had passed by during the chase, that Sing and Nadia ended up trudging around the woods for the entire afternoon.  
  
“We wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t chased after that darn rabbit!” Nadia said, frustration in her voice.  
  
“Aw, but look on the bright side! All this extra walking is sure to help you lose some much-needed weigh—”  
  
_POW!_  
  
Sing clutched his head, “What was that for?!” he yelped.  
  
Nadia blew away imaginary smoke from her fist, as if holding a gun, and shrugged. “You were asking for it.”  
  
Sing shot her a look and continued rubbing his head.  
  
By now the sun had started setting, and their stomachs had unfortunately started growling. They had no choice but to walk on, even though each path looked the same as the last, and it felt like they were forever walking with no destination in sight. From time to time, Nadia muttered to herself as she tried to retrace their steps and find the right path.  
  
As for Sing, he was trying (but failing) to ignore the emptiness gnawing at his stomach. Breakfast had seemed so long ago...  
  
Suddenly, a flap of wings made him look up, and he saw a flock of birds fly above him. He also saw, much to his surprise, something grey and wispy billowing in the sky, along with the unmistakable smell of...gingerbread?  
  
“Nadia- _jiejie_ , look!” He tugged her arm and pointed.  
  
Following his gaze, Nadia let out a gasp. “Could it be...?”  
  
“Only one way to find out! Come on!” Together, they raced towards the mysterious smoke, each step bringing them closer and closer to the source it came from.  
  
At last they arrived at a clearing, but it was what they saw in the clearing that took their breaths away.  
  
The first thing they noticed were gigantic lollipops. Gigantic could only be an exaggeration, for they ranged in height, and some were as tall and as thick as trees. Reds, oranges, and yellow ones...the light from the sun reflected off the lollipops and made them almost look like small sunsets. And where a carpet of grass should have been, green cotton candy covered the ground instead. But perhaps most peculiar of all was the house that stood in the centre of the clearing—if you could call it a house, that is. For its walls and roof were made out of gingerbread and glued together with white frosting. A small chimney perched on top, puffing out curly grey smoke. Purple gumdrops dotted the roof while yellow stained glass candy formed two windows. And in between those windows stood a huge bar of chocolate, only it wasn’t an ordinary bar of chocolate; it was the front door. A single gumdrop formed the doorknob, and in the middle of the door was a piece of yellow gummy in the shape of a pineapple. A pathway made out of red and white swirls of peppermint candy led up to the house.  
  
Sing and Nadia looked at each other, then at the house, then back at each other.  
  
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Nadia whispered.  
  
“I-I think so,” Sing whispered back. His stomach suddenly let out a loud grumble to remind him that it hadn’t ate anything since those egg tarts from breakfast. “You don’t suppose...” he licked his lips, “...that everything here is edible, do you?”  
  
“I don’t know, Sing...but this doesn’t look like someplace we should be.” Nadia looked around worriedly. “Let’s just go...” She began walking away from the clearing. “Come on, Sing.” No reply. “Sing? Sing!!” She turned around just in time to see him bounding into the clearing. “No, Sing! Come back!! Darn it, when will he ever listen?!” And she ran after him.  
  
Meanwhile, Sing made his way towards the house. Standing on his tiptoes, he reached for the pineapple gummy, and as he did, saw that flecks of purple were embedded in it. With a shrug, he popped the gummy into his mouth.  
  
At that moment, the chocolate door swung open. Sing froze, then slowly, ever so slowly, he looked up to see who had opened it. Behind him, he heard Nadia’s footsteps come to a stop on the peppermints.  
  
Standing in the doorway and wiping his hands on a cloth, was a young man wearing a chocolate-stained apron. Upon seeing them, the corner of his mouth tugged into a grin. “Hi there, kiddos! My name is Lao, and this is my house. Won’t you come inside?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I hope this chapter was alright XD This entire week I suffered an absolutely terrible case of writer's block so apologies if any of the sentences sounded awkward ><;;;
> 
> Anyway chapter 3 will be up within a week, and as always, thank you for reading! (・ω・)ノ
> 
> [ instagram ](https://www.instagram.com/angieowlie) and [ twitterrr](https://twitter.com/angieowlieotaku)


	3. going on hiatus...><

Hey guys~ I'm really sorry...but this fic is going on hiatus for a while >< My writing isn't really going the way I'd like for it to be so I've decided that, rather than poop out sentences written half-heartedly, I'm going to put a pause on this fic. Thank you for understanding! OTL


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